Take For Granted
by thelonegunmenX
Summary: An introspection on Ziva's work.


Never take anything for granted.

She's always lived by the rule, and it's never failed her. It worked well. Do what needs to be done, deal with people when you need to, and don't get attached.

Sounds pretty on paper.

It's there today, chances are it won't be tomorrow. Like this poor bastard. Won't be there tomorrow, and sooner or later people will start looking for him. He got in her way.

Luck of the draw.

And she almost smiles when Ari stares at her, shakes his head and wonders what the fuck happened to his baby sister. He says that she's out of control.

Look who's talking.

She goes about her work, ruthlessly efficient, but her mind is elsewhere. It didn't even occur to her to remember to feel bad for the victim after a while. Took too much energy.

Ah well.

He knocks the gun from her hands, but she has another. A shot to the head, and her fingers are dipping into the nearly hot blood of Tareq Khalil. _He attacked me first_, she reasoned.

Right.

Working for Mossad suits her. She does what she does best. Just manipulate everyone you encounter and life is good. Kill your obstacles. If it can't be killed by hand, blow it up. You can't always get away with it though.

She works anti-terrorism now. Palestinians. Bombs and such. She's good at this too, but she'd much rather blow up the whole fucking country. Isn't that hypocritical.

_Fuck, I need a __drink._

She toys with her gun, flicking the safety on and off. Doesn't faze him. Her cigarette burning through his skin does though. She walks around the table and smashes the butt of her Colt into the side of his face. He stumbles back off his chair, but he doesn't give in. He's yelling at her to stop, that he'd give her the information. She just likes the smell of burning flesh.

She's assigned to work with an American, though she's not too bad. The work gets done, and the woman doesn't seem to be shocked by her unorthodox interrogation tactics. She almost starts to like her, but she stops herself in time.

Don't get attached.

She focuses on the job and everything is good. They work well together, can almost trust each other.

Don't kill each other.

Jenny is more complicated than she originally thought, and the fact intrigues her. She'll figure her out sooner or later. When the work is finished.

Time passes, Jen moves on, as she knew she would. People die, missions fail. It's all happened before. Ari infiltrates Hamas, but she was never sure if he was on her side in the first place. He kills people in America, and she is sent to deal with him.

Keep the angry vultures away from the path of rotting flesh he leaves behind. He wants to meet her in Paris when everything is over. After she cleans up his bloody mess.

Who's out of control now?

She goes to America to deal with Ari. Works with a man, a Marine. He lost one of his own, an object of one of Ari's many damn fixations.

Jen's there, and if she's surprised by her presence, she barely shows it. But later, outside her apartment, it doesn't make a difference. Her anger with Ari doesn't dissolve with the warm body, but it certainly helps. Jen—

No, the director of a federal agency—

Stares at her intently, but doesn't ask questions.

Good, she wouldn't get answers anyway.

Jen's lips are on hers, and she's no longer thinking about avoiding attachment, she already knows that she doesn't care about the person under her skin.

Jen doesn't care either.

She tries to protect her brother, but her alliance with him was broken years ago. She shoots him, without hesitation, because he was just creating more work for her anyway. She almost feels bad.

Almost.

She sends his body to Tel Aviv, and tells her father that Gibbs shot him. He almost believes her. Jen takes the liberty of assigning her to agent Gibbs' team, although it is made perfectly clear that she is not wanted.

Screw it.

It's a difficult task, dealing with the law. She can't "manhandle" the suspects; that too is part of the law. She never could quite understand why cops in America were not allowed to use more aggressive techniques. _Nothing ever gets done this way._

She gets the work done, and gradually earns the trust of her new colleagues. An odd group of people, to be sure, but a good team. The scientist, Abby, continues to hate her, but what else is new, she gets that a lot. Her partner's a pain in the ass, but she is too, so it evens out.

Gibbs gets blown up, and can't remember anything for a while. But she helps him to remember in her own _special_ way.

Heh.

_He doesn't want to remember me, that's why he remembers._ He leaves, and Tony leads the team. He does well, but no one can make eye contact for a month. The girl from the FBI, Lee, joins the team and they don't call McGee probie anymore.

Lucky him.

Abby gets so hyped up on caffeine that she nearly vibrates, and she keeps his picture on her desktop whenever she's in the lab. She talks to him, but no one wonders if she's insane.

Because they all are.

Some times Ducky slips up and says _hello, Jethro _when she walks into the lab, and then turns and apologizes. She sees the sadness in his eyes and almost starts to miss the man himself.

Stop. _No, I don't care. _She reminds herself.

And it works.

She's framed for murder, and after much consideration asks for his help. He comes back from Mexico and helps clear her name. People die. Life goes on. Right.


End file.
